What is "railroading" to you (as a player)?

[CreamCloud0]

But what is the point of playing, say a horror game, if it is not scary? Do people not want to be at least a little bit scared while watching a horror film too?

i'd say no, they don't want to be scared, a game is not a movie and people engage with them in different ways, what i believe that people want from a horror TTG, rather than to be scared as such, is to invoke the tropes and scenarios of a horror movie onto their characters, whether they end up rising above the challenge and being the few survivors at the end who get to go back to their lives or to see them fail, becoming the ones who spiral into insanity and die hideously.

 

[Bill Zebub]

i'd say no, they don't want to be scared, a game is not a movie and people engage with them in different ways, what i believe that people want from a horror TTG, rather than to be scared as such, is to invoke the tropes and scenarios of a horror movie onto their characters, whether they end up rising above the challenge and being the few survivors at the end who get to go back to their lives or to see them fail, becoming the ones who spiral into insanity and die hideously.

I sort of get that....but it just doesn't feel like an RPG to me. Or, at least, it wouldn't seem to have anything to do with why I enjoy RPGs and find them different from other games.

I can imagine myself playing and enjoying a horror-themed board game, where you roll dice and move pieces, and turn over cards with cool artwork that describe tropes from the horror genre. "You witness a nameless thing from another dimension. Lose 1d6 Sanity." And that would be fun, and I would both laugh and fake groan when my character goes crazy and has to go to the Insane Asylum section of the board until whatever game mechanic gets me out again. I would play that game.

But it wouldn't feel like an RPG. EDIT: ...to me.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I sort of get that....but it just doesn't feel like an RPG to me. Or, at least, it wouldn't seem to have anything to do with why I enjoy RPGs and find them different from other games.

I can imagine myself playing and enjoying a horror-themed board game, where you roll dice and move pieces, and turn over cards with cool artwork that describe tropes from the horror genre. "You witness a nameless thing from another dimension. Lose 1d6 Sanity." And that would be fun, and I would both laugh and fake groan when my character goes crazy and has to go to the Insane Asylum section of the board until whatever game mechanic gets me out again. I would play that game.

But it wouldn't feel like an RPG.

I have to just note that there are plenty of people who, effectively, play RPGs as single-character board games where they get to define the character associate with the play piece and sometimes have discussions in character. The line you're drawing here is crossed back and forth all the time by some people, and has been since the start of the hobby.

 

[Bill Zebub]

I have to just note that there are plenty of people who, effectively, play RPGs as single-character board games where they get to define the character associate with the play piece and sometimes have discussions in character. The line you're drawing here is crossed back and forth all the time by some people, and has been since the start of the hobby.

Ummm...ok? I'm not sure what you think I was saying (or not saying but thinking?) such that this is meant to....something. I'm confused.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Ummm...ok? I'm not sure what you think I was saying (or not saying but thinking?) such that this is meant to....something. I'm confused.

I think he's saying that a lot of people disagree with you on what a role playing game feels like.

 

[Bill Zebub]

I think he's saying that a lot of people disagree with you on what a role playing game feels like.

Oh, ok. I thought we had established multiple times in this thread that we all have different preferences. I thought I was pretty explicit in saying that this is what it feels like to me.

EDIT: But re-reading, I only said "to me" the first time I used the word "feels". Not the second time. My bad.